It Just Has To Be Delicious

Archive for May, 2013

I love samosas. This is a vegetarian recipe, but you can add minced lamb to the mixture if you prefer the meat version. I made mine with filo pastry – you can make the traditional samosa pastry if you like, but it is quite an art to get it right, and filo crisps up really well when you fry them. I asked my Indian friend Kesh if it is ok to use filo and he said yes, so if it’s good enough for him then I don’t feel too bad about cheating. Like the onion bhajias, you can fry these in advance and heat them up later in a hot oven.

Samosas and onion bhajias

To make the filling you need:

2 onions chopped

4 medium potatoes diced small

2 carrots diced small

2 cups of frozen peas

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of green masala paste (if you haven’t got any – whizz up a green chilli with 2 large cloves of garlic and and inch of root ginger)

1 teaspoon of grated fresh ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh crushed garlic

2 teaspoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon turmeric (haldi)

1/2 tablespoon ground coriander (dhania)

1/2 tablespoon ground cumin (jeera)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

a large handful of coriander leaves finely chopped

1. Heat 3 tablespoons of sunflower or groundnut oil in a large pan or wok with a lid

2. Add the onions and fry gently for a few minutes, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

3. Cover and simmer over a low heat for up to 45 minutes (the cooking time will depend on how large the pieces are).

4. Test regularly with a knife to see if cooked (try a potato).

5. Stir through some butter or non dairy spread while still warm, and then set aside to cool.

Next step you need butter or non dairy spread and some cornflour.

6. Melt some butter or non dairy spread to brush on the pastry.

7. Mix 1 teaspoon of cornflour with water to make a runny paste – this can be used to ‘glue’ the filo edges together if the samosas are a bit loose.

Once the filling has cooled, spread out some filo pastry on a work surface.

Take one sheet and brush it with the butter and place another sheet over the top.

Slice the sheet vertically into approx 5 strips.

At the bottom of a strip place a spoonful of filling. Fold the corner over in a triangle, then back again in a zig zag pattern until the whole strip of pastry has been used. Seal the end with a dab of the cornflour paste.

These little onion bhajias are magic – I think it’s nice to make them small because they end up crispier and not at all stodgy. If you are not eating them straight away, you can deep fry them in advance, and then finish them off in a hot oven which will crisp them up nicely.

Onion bhajias

What you need depends on how many you are going to make – I managed to get around 25-30 small ones out of this mixture:

1/2 cup of chick pea flour (chana flour or gram flour)

1 cup of self raising flour

2 onions halved and then sliced finely so that you get long bits which will crisp up

1/4 teaspoon turmeric (haldi)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cumin (jeera)

1 teaspoon ground coriander (dhania)

1/4 teaspoon crushed star anise (soomph)

1/4 teaspoon chilli powder

1 teaspoon of green masala paste (if you don’t have this whizz up half a green chilli, a large clove of garlic and 1/2″ root ginger)

200ml water

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a bowl, then add the water to make a batter and mix till smooth (you can use a blender if you like), then add the onions and mix well.

2. Heat some oil in a large pan or deep fat fryer – it will be hot enough when a tiny drop of batter fizzes and rises to the surface.

3. Using two spoons press the batter into small balls – it will look like it wants to fall apart, but when you add it to the oil it will bind together and be ok.

4. Use tongs to fry until golden brown on both sides, flipping every minute.

5. Drain on kitchen paper.

6. Either eat immediately or warm up later in a hot oven for about 10 minutes.

You can make a mint sauce to dip these in by whizzing up the following ingredients: